Time, Money, and Control: Breaking Free from Subscription Sovereignty

Note: This post is a fictional civic reflection on digital autonomy, software ownership, and the emotional cost of convenience. It is not a technical guide, but a framework for rethinking control.

🧭 The Premise

As more apps and platforms shift to paid subscription models, users face a quiet dilemma: trade money for convenience, or reclaim control at the cost of time and effort. This isn’t just a pricing issue—it’s a sovereignty question.

💰 The Subscription Trap

Paid subscriptions offer clear benefits:

• Timely updates
• Fewer security issues
• Smoother transitions to new features
• Priority support and integrations

But the flipside is a constant leak—a percentage of your output, creativity, and income is siphoned off forever. With dozens of apps adopting this model, your wallet becomes a leaking pipe.

🔓 The Ownership Alternative

Open-source software and fixed-release proprietary tools offer a different path:

• You own the tool, not rent it
• You choose when and how to update
• You avoid forced transitions that disrupt your workflow
• You save money—but must invest time and awareness

This path demands responsibility. You must follow development threads, understand changelogs, and protect yourself. But you gain control.

⚖️ The Civic Question

What do you respect more—your time and effort, or your money?

This isn’t a binary choice. It’s a spectrum of sovereignty. Some users may choose subscriptions for peace of mind. Others may embrace open tools for legacy clarity and financial freedom.

🧠 Simulation Prompt

Title: Design Your Digital Sovereignty Ledger

Challenge:

• List the tools you use daily—note which are subscriptions and which are owned
• Score each tool on control, cost, and emotional disruption
• Draft your ideal balance between convenience and autonomy

💬 Final Thought

Software isn’t just code—it’s a civic contract. Every subscription is a vote for convenience. Every open-source install is a vote for control. What kind of citizen are you in the digital republic?

Quarto: The Sovereign Publishing Engine

In a world dominated by proprietary formats and institutional lock-in, Quarto emerges as a modular, open-source alternative to traditional word processors and presentation tools like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Built on top of Pandoc, Quarto empowers creators to write once and publish everywhere—with emotional clarity, technical precision, and civic resonance.

🧠 Why Quarto Outshines Proprietary Tools

• Markdown-first authoring: Write in plain text using .qmd files, with full support for headings, lists, tables, and embedded code.
• Multi-format publishing: Export to PDF, HTML, Word, slides, and even books—without changing your source file.
• Presentation support: Create beautiful slide decks using Reveal.js, PowerPoint, or LaTeX Beamer. Each ## heading becomes a slide.
• Mermaid diagrams: Visualize emotional flows, civic trust protocols, or migration rituals with native Mermaid support.
• Image embedding: Insert figures with captions, layout control, and cross-referencing for print-ready clarity.
• Code integration: Embed live code from Python, R, or Julia—ideal for reproducible civic metrics and Seva Point audits.
• Open-source sovereignty: No vendor lock-in, no hidden formatting traps. Your content remains yours.

📄 Example: A Civic Trust Slide

---
title: "Seva Points Ritual"
format: revealjs
---

## Emotional Stewardship

- Define Seva Points
- Track legacy impact

## Civic Trust Flow

```{mermaid}
flowchart TD
  A[Start] --> B{Trust Verified?}
  B -->|Yes| C[Issue Seva Visa]
  B -->|No| D[Redirect to Ritual]

Legacy Impact: Quarto transforms civic documentation into emotionally resonant, print-ready artifacts—without sacrificing modularity or sovereignty.

🔍 The Open Question

While Quarto clearly replaces proprietary word processors and presentation apps, one question remains:

What is the best standalone, open-source alternative to Microsoft Excel—one that embraces AI, supports advanced modeling, and respects sovereign formatting?

LibreOffice Calc covers most ground. Gnumeric offers precision. But the search for a truly sovereign spreadsheet engine continues.

What would a Seva Points dashboard look like in a post-Excel world?

He-Man Nostalgia - Part 2

Finally, I got around to making the paper crafts of He-Man and Skeletor from this website: http://minipapercraft.blogspot.com/search/label/Heman%20and%20the%20Masters%20of%20the%20universe

Have a look at my attempt:

Rising Sea Level - Solution is Desalination

There has been a spike in news articles on rising sea levels, its impact, solutions, and inevitability.
Well I cannot speak about inevitability because I am no Oracle or Seer; neither do I know the vast grand plan.

I can only give my limited solution, that too, if rising sea level is looked at as a problem and not a tool for new economy. Well, my solution may be seen as some sort of economy generator, lets see.

What I propose is to drastically expand desalination activity across all coast lines and to use the filtered water for agriculture and general use. The usage should be in the coastal areas that are at least 300 to 500 kilometers far away from the coast line.

This will reduce seal level and enrich the land's depleting ground water. This will also reduce the stress on rain water and help farmers invest in heavy water using crops that usually get more price than other crops.

Making LibreOffice documents look like Microsoft Word 2007 documents

Taking inspiration from my previous article "Making SoftMaker FreeOffice TextMaker documents look like Microsoft Word 2007 documents" at https://aajkyakiya.blogspot.com/2016/07/making-softmaker-freeoffice-textmaker.html, I have now tried to do the same in LibreOffice Writer v 6.1.6

Please read the above article to get a background for this post.

The LibreOffice document/template can be downloaded from the below location:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DcAyEqidRf0K21C-mZ-_FpksJ4CzooHO

Again as in my previous post, this is an English language template. The template uses the default fonts used in Word 2007 - you may have to change the fonts if you do not have these installed on your system. For example, on modern Linux systems, the alternatives are available in the croscore fonts package. Also, the template uses the Letter page size.

Please leave a reply if this document/template worked for you.

Character based Society vs Law based Society

Every person wants to live in a Society that respects that person's ethos. Many have 'nice' ethos, no doubt, but many also want to do whatever they want without any consequences. For example, I have met with many people who want a strict law of the land for others but not for them. For them, they want the law to look the other way when they embezzle other people's funds, but want a very strict law on other people.

Why is this? Our present society has raised us to follow the "Law of the Land", and many of these "Laws" have loopholes, or we become smart/knowledgeable about the laws to maneuver our way through all the nooks and corners to ultimately get what we want.

Is this how we want our Society to function. Do we want the law to spell out each and every point of our lives. Do we want pages upon pages of laws to govern us. Do we really have to have people that are always ready to pounce upon us for even the smallest non-conforming thing.

Our forefathers, the enlightened beings that walked on earth and all the enlightened texts want us to become a Character Based society rather then a Law Based society. A character based society would be where each one of us would know the difference between right and wrong and not look for what the Law says.

For comparison, I think the Internet ecosystem (and technology in general) is becoming more of a Character Based society. People on social media give their inputs based on what they think is right rather then what the "Law" thinks is right. I even see the open source movement as a character based society where each individual contributes for the "greater good" of all.

But, can Character Based society remain intact in the absence of Law? This is the real question. I think that Law will still be required, but based on character and not punishment. The end result of Law should not be punishment but increase of Character.

Again, this is very similar to the Internet ecosystem. Where we see a technology infringing upon people's rights and then when Law (mostly, a uproar by Character) comes then the technology changes its track to conform with Character rather then getting Punished. This is what it should be.

Gyan | MindChow | Food for Thought | Steps to Smiles

The below text are taken from the 'Steps to Smile.pdf' by CA R.S.Kalra'. (Get this pdf from http://voiceofca.in/siteadmin/document/R_S_Kalra_stepstosmiles.pdf || https://drive.google.com/file/d/11QtLsdNnetf9ObDwtHb2R-UAR7_fIiom/view?usp=sharing)

As long as we do not forgive people who have hurt us, they occupy a rent-free space in our mind.

Negative attitude is like a punctured tyre. You cannot reach anywhere until you change it.

In the company of wind, even dust achieves great heights. But, when mixed with water, it becomes mud. Choose the right company to enhance your value.

A bird sitting on a branch is not afraid of the branch breaking or falling, because it trusts not the branch but its own wings.

We need everything 'permanent' in a 'temporary' life.

A hard fact to remember do something right, no one remembers. Do something wrong no one forgets.

It's not important to go to heaven after we leave, but it's important to create heaven in someone's heart, before we leave.

Maturity is not when we start speaking "Big Things" but actually it is when we start understanding "Small Things".

A man asked God I want happiness so God said first remove "I" that's ego, and then remove "Want" that's desire then see you are left with only "Happiness".

Never waste a minute of your precious life by squandering it thinking about people you don't like.

Four steps to live life:
1st - look back and thank God,
2nd - look forward and trust God,
3rd - look around and believe God,
4th - look within and find God

In order to have a comfortable journey of life, reduce the luggage of desires.